Logbook · 3 places

What to see and do in Villafranca del Bierzo

What to see and do in Villafranca del Bierzo (El Bierzo, León): 3 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Historical milestones

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Spain › Castile and León › León › El Bierzo › Villafranca del Bierzo

What to see and do in Villafranca del Bierzo

Villafranca del Bierzo
Village
Villafranca del Bierzo is a town in the comarca of El Bierzo, in the province of León, where the rivers Burbia and Valcarce meet; it has 2,591 inhabitants and is, alongside Castilian, one of the Leonese localities where Galician is spoken. In 2015 Unesco included it, as part of the extension of the Camino de Santiago in Spain, among the elements associated with the Routes of Santiago de Compostela. Neolithic axes and a bronze spearhead attest to a pre-Roman and Roman occupation, and the Castro de la Ventosa marks the site of the early Celtic city of Bergidum. Its old town, a conjunto histórico-artístico (a Spanish heritage-protection category) since 1965, holds the church of Santiago, whose Door of Pardon let sick pilgrims gain the jubilee, next to a 16th-century castle-palace.
Church of Santiago y Puerta del Perdón
Monument
A transitional Romanesque church begun in 1186 under Fernando, bishop of Astorga. Its north doorway, the Puerta del Perdón, opens in a Holy Year to give the sick pilgrim the indulgence he will no longer reach in Compostela; a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 1993.
Creation of the Marquisate of Villafranca
Historical milestone
The Catholic Monarchs settled in 1486 the suit over the inheritance of Pedro Álvarez Osorio by creating the marquisate for his daughter Juana and Luis Pimentel, leaving the county of Lemos to Rodrigo de Castro and returning the castle of Ponferrada to the Crown.